Seeing Red
by Ami Ree
Summary: It's not good to play belated April Fools pranks on the resident redhead.


I never thought my first fic in this fandom would be this pairing. I own absolutely no rights to anyone in this story. I think Hasbro and Hama have claim to those. This was originally written for a friend who needed a boost. I hope the rest of you enjoy it as well.

* * *

The crowd parted like a wave in the water as the redhead passed.

The anger radiated off of her like a force field, warning everyone within range that Scarlett had gone way past angry and was on the cliff of well and truly pissed.

Anyone stupid enough to not get out of her way either got burned by the red hot force of her anger or got tossed across the room for not moving fast enough.

Generals cowered in the shadow of her anger. Only someone truly at loss of their facilities would stand in her way…

"Are you okay?"

A non-coherent snarl was all the man got in response as she stormed passed him. Duke looked back at the parting of terrified and confused soldiers as well as the two or three still rubbing their head where it had met with wall when they hadn't moved fast enough.

Turning on his heel, he hurried to catch up with the redheaded tornado.

"No seriously, what the hell happened? You haven't been this mad since your sister pulled her crap two years ago."

She stopped in mid-stalk, executing a perfect half turn and making Zap, who was walking by, squeak and stumble over his feet in a desperate attempt to escape.

Her arm shot out in a stiff gesture, pointing towards the path of destruction behind her.

He waited expectantly for her to speak but all she got out was another strangled growl. Gently, he placed a hand on her still straightened arm, feeling the tightened muscles beneath his fingertips.

"Breathe. And tell me who I have to kill."

"Spiders!" She finally spat out, her voice still low. "Who the hell lets spiders into the goddamn mess hall!"

Now he was confused.

"What?"

"They had to die." Now that the dam had been broken, the words tumbled over each other. "I had to kill them. But Leatherneck wouldn't let me kill them. Oh I tried, they deserve to die, Duke!"

"Are we still talking about the spiders?"

"GAH!" With a furious shriek, she pulled away from him and continued on her way down the hall. Duke watched in amusement as Ace practically became one with the wall in his effort to get the hell out of Scarlett's way.

* * *

Three hours, and discussions with a sore yet amused Leatherneck, a not so amused Lifeline, and annoyed Dusty and a horribly bruised and very contrite Shipwreck and Wet Suit gave Duke the answer he was searching for.

The two navel idiots thought it would be a good idea to pull a belated April Fool's joke on Scarlett. Wet Suit had procured one of Dusty's pet tarantulas from his room and brought it to the mess where Shipwreck, who had already been on mess duty, had slid the furry little monster under a slice of bread on Scarlett's tray.

She hadn't even made it from the line before the spider decided it didn't like its place of honor and began trying to escape the tray.

Trays clattered to the floor.

Ear piercing screams of horror echoed the mess.

People ran.

Wet Suit and Shipwreck laughed their fool asses off.

According to Leatherneck and Dusty, they'd never seen anyone ever bodily pull someone over the mess food line before today. Shipwreck went over the line, meatloaf and mashed potatoes flew everywhere as Scarlet pummeled the protesting sailor who kept screaming "it was just a joke!"

Leatherneck had saved his friend from more than a couple of punches to the head, but Scarlett did manage to get one good kick to the solar plexus while Leatherneck was trying to hold her back.

Rosemary the tarantula escaped with minor trauma although Dusty did get kicked in the head during his rescue attempt.

In the Infirmary, Duke got a catalog of injuries from the medic on duty who only said "I don't normally approve of violence but these two dumb-asses deserved anything they got."

Two concussions, a bruised spleen, a spattering of scrapes and bruises, a black eye, two split lips, a broken nose and one lost tooth. Shipwreck received the most of these injuries.

Duke told them both they got off light.

It was another forty-five minutes of paperwork and a headache before Duke was able to put it all behind him and go check on Scarlett.

* * *

He knocked on the door to her quarters hesitantly, glancing around the hallway just in case.

The door finally clicked open and a still pale and annoyed Scarlett peeked out. Duke held out a covered plate and a small box towards her.

"Cook felt bad you didn't get lunch so he made you up a plate. I promise, it's spider free," he hastened to add when she eyes the plate distrustfully. She waited another beat before opening the door fully to take the plate.

"Come in."

He stepped into her quarters, shutting the door behind him as she walked through the small area opening the to-go silverware and pulling the cover off of the still warm plate. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from grinning as she used the fork to stab at the food on the plate first before eating it.

"Thank you." She said between mouthfuls.

"Shipwreck and Wet Suit have been properly disciplined." He took a seat on the end of her bunk as she ate. "After they are released from the Infirmary, they will be spending a month not only cleaning up after our four legged soldiers on base but they also have three weeks of PT course building under the personal direction of Beachhead who is more than happy for the manual help. Dusty has been informed that Rosemary and Petunia have to vacate the base asap, which he's not happy about but he'll live. And if it make you feel any better, our medic thinks the idiots deserved every bit of ass whipping you delivered to them."

She swallowed the last of the mashed potatoes and gave him a grin. "Actually, that does make me feel a little better. Anytime I can get our resident pacifist to approve bodily violence is a step in the right direction."

He stood up and handed her the small box. "And here, this is from me. Sort of an "I'm sorry you almost had to kill your teammates" gift.

Her face softened as she took the small box. "Aw Duke, you didn't have to," She gave a small happy squeal when she opened the lid and spotted the chocolates inside. "But I'm glad you did. My favorite!"

She tugged him back down on the bunk and sat next to him, shoulder to shoulder, the re-covered box still in her hands. He nudged her with his shoulder.

"You going to eat those?"

"Later." With a soft sigh, she laid her head against his shoulder and sat there quietly. He allowed a smile and lifted his arm to wrap around her shoulder.

It was a rare time when he got to see a content and relaxed Scarlett and he cherished every one of those moments. The fact that he was the one she chose to be privileged enough to see her like this still left him a little breathless. But he was okay with that.

He looked down at her movement and was caught off guard as she pushed him backwards. He fell backwards onto the bunk and she was over him, straddling his waist.

He blinked at the mane of red surrounding her face, just inches over his.

"Whoa Sargent." He teased, his hands lifting to her waist. "Is this any way to treat the man who brought you dinner?"

"And evicted the spiders." She reminded him before lowering to kiss him. "My hero." She mouthed against his lips before diving in again.

If this was his reward for rescuing the damsel in not-so-much distress, he thought as he returned her kiss, he was happy to continue taking the hits.


End file.
